March 31, 2013

The regime is understood to have substantial numbers of short- and intermediate-range missiles such as the Nodong, a variant on the Scud missile.

With a range of around 1,000km, the Nodong could in theory strike in South Korea and Japan. However, its poor accuracy makes it an ineffective battlefield weapon and it is unlikely North Korea would be able to pinpoint US military bases in the region, although it could cause serious civilian casualties.

The middle-range Musudan missile is of major concern to Japan as its 4,000km capability would allow the North Korean regime to strike anywhere in Japanese territory. Estimates of the size of North Korea's Musudan arsenal vary widely, with figures ranging from only a dozen to more than 200.

The Taepodong 1 was North Korea's first multi-stage missile, a significant technological development where the weapon depends on different thrusters at different times. However it has proved a poor performer, with limited range and unreliable accuracy.

March 22, 2013

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — The jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
on Thursday called for a cease-fire and ordered all his fighters off
Turkish soil, in a landmark moment for a newly energized effort to end
three decades of armed conflict with the Turkish government.

Since its start late last year, the peace effort has transfixed a
Turkish public traumatized by a long and bloody conflict that has
claimed nearly 40,000 lives and fractured society along ethnic lines.
While there have been previous periods of cease-fire between Turkey and
Mr. Ocalan’s group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., never
before has there been so much support at the highest levels of both the
Turkish and Kurdish leadership.

“We reached the point where weapons should go silent and ideas speak,”
Mr. Ocalan wrote in a letter read out to jubilant crowds gathered in the
Kurdish heartland here in southern Turkey. “A new era starts when
politics, instead of guns, comes to the forefront.”

For the Turkish government, seeking peace within its borders is a step
toward realizing its ambition to be a regional power broker. For the
Kurds, the call for peace carries with it the hope of more rights under a
new constitution and the freedom to express a separate identity within a
country that for decades denied their existence, forbade them to speak
their language and abused their activists.

The declaration by Mr. Ocalan was seen as a critical confidence-building
step in the peace process. It brought ecstatic celebration among the
huge crowds gathered outside Diyarbakir to celebrate Nowruz, the
traditional spring festival. Lawmakers read out statements in both
Turkish and Kurdish as waves of yellow, red and green, the traditional
Kurdish colors, rippled through the masses.

The deal is far from done, however. Notably, while Mr. Ocalan called for
militants to retreat to bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, he did
not order them to disarm. And a long process of constitutional reform
and negotiations over Kurdish prisoners lies ahead.

March 5, 2013

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has died, his vice-president has announced.

Mr Chavez had not appeared in public since he returned to Venezuela last month after cancer treatment in Cuba.
An emotional Nicolas Maduro made the announcement on Tuesday
evening, flanked by leading Venezuelan political and military leaders.
Earlier, he said the 58-year-old Venezuelan leader had a new,
severe respiratory infection and had entered "his most difficult
hours".
One of the most visible, vocal and controversial leaders in
Latin America, the former army paratrooper won the presidency in 1998
and had most recently won another six-year presidential term in October
2012.